(1993),
Pleasantville evokes a nascent conservatism against which to pit
and champion themes of social justice and cultural and political
regeneration. While in Dave , an honest everyman is displaced into
the corrupt world of Presidential politics, changing it with can-do
compassion, Daniel and Jennifer are displaced into the regulated
myth-world of Pleasantville, transforming it with values and

an echo of the kind of studio resistance that Stone had encountered during preparations for
Platoon at the early juncture of his career, as well as confirmation
of an enduring conservatism within the major studios, despite the
liberal pretentions of some of the industry’s leading spokespeople.
Locating Stone’s auteurism within a critical framework always
presents challenges for critics, scholars and audiences. These
233
Th e ci nem a of Ol iver S to ne
234
off-​kilter projects from the turn of the millennium have made that
pursuit no easier. The classic

the hidden conservatism of destructive pupils in Carry On
Teacher (Gerald Thomas, 1959) who ‘cheer uproariously at the
maintenance of the status quo ’. 16 However, it is overly simplistic to see
the rhetoric of consensus in 1950s comedies as a unifying force; for
example, ‘working-class British people were depicted in terms of
patronizing ignorance’. 17 The Smallest Show on Earth is aware of this

’s reputation for
literariness and restraint, and has helped imbue it with a theatrical
quality, served as it has been by an unobtrusive ‘“flatness” in the
depiction and construction of space, as if the camera’ is ‘afraid to
move through the fourth wall and interrupt an established
environment’. 35 In spite of the merits of script, performance and
dramatic effect, such stylistic conservatism with dialogue to

Crichton, having found some pearls on the island, settles for a maid
(Diane Cilento) and goes off to get married and start a business and a
family. There is no such magical resolution in the play, which concludes
with an uncomfortable impasse: Crichton, still the mouthpiece of
conservatism, faces the young woman he almost married across the gulf of
privilege and social difference.
These differences

conservatism of the times they depict – analyses which
also had relevance for the years of Thatcher’s rule in the UK during
which they were produced – their narratives unfolded in a linear and
realistic fashion, without formal or stylistic innovation.
Many theoretical considerations of heritage cinema have
attempted to interrogate the political ramifications of a body of films
that seems to revel in the

. Well done, my friend’, says the King in a belated bid for
egalitarianism, ‘Thank you, Your Majesty’, replies Logue (albeit with a
rather ambiguous intonation). It is at this point that the stories of
the two men concur and the film’s conservatism re-emerges. Lionel learns
his place, his rebellion is tamed and he is rewarded, as vassals in days
of old, with a knighthood. 22 George VI gains that sacred quality of

circumvent even this fleeting recognition of the vast suffering of the
general populous during this time – laying the film open to common
criticisms levelled at the conservatism and elitism of the heritage
film.
That said, the film does engage on some level with
political challenges of republicanism and the spectre of socialism that
plagued the monarchy at this time, such as when George V tells Bertie

nevertheless displayed many of the
same traits to which his younger self succumbed.
Therefore, Stone’s dramatic history in World Trade Center and
W. privileged character above outright polemical commentary. The
result was partly to do with circumstance, partly with Hollywood
conservatism, and in part to do with Stone’s own cinematic evolution. Had Stone’s filmography in this period included War on
Terror, Jawbreaker and/​or Pinkville, then undoubtedly the overall
direction and assessment of his work would have looked different.
Studio conservatism may have stayed his hand to

been resolute enough: ‘Perhaps I was pandering, perhaps
I was softballing him with the questions, as some people say.’51 In
truth, Russell’s critique only followed HBO’s editorial thinking; the
message was that it was not really acceptable to give someone like
Castro a sympathetic hearing, and Stone thought the objections
reeked of ideological conservatism, even if he himself could have
been a tougher inquisitor.
Nevertheless, with whatever goodwill remained, and with
renewed enthusiasm from HBO following Comandante’s cancellation, Stone returned to Cuba in May 2003